PADI certification for 4 at CSA

We are two couples heading to CSA next month. We were thinking about getting our PADI certification for scuba while down there. My question was in regards to the amount of instructors that available to teach. I wasn't sure if 1 instructor could accommodate 4 students or would we need more than 1 instructor. Also, If others are heading out for open water diving, will there be other instructors to teach us in the pool?

I just dont want to get there and find we need to be trained at different times, or find the dive staff is booked.
Thanks in advance for the help

A piece of advice? Complete all of your book (or online) work before you leave for Jamaica. Then at CSA, just do your final check-out dive for certification. My husband is an avid diver and we've had friends do it both ways over the years. The people who do the entire certification at Couples, do have to spend much more vacation time studying than the others. It will take you a few days of studying and pool skills tests before you can even do your final dive and get certified. But if you do the pre-work prior to arriving, you can check-out on your first or second morning and spend the rest of your vacation diving!

However, if you still choose to do the entire certification at the resort, there is always a Dive Instructor who teaches the resort class while the certified divers and divemaster go out on their dives. The only thing is that you might be sharing the pool with other guests in the resort class. Chances are you won't have a private class just for the four of you. You can always call the resort and ask to speak to the dive shop ahead (they usually arrive around 8:30a for the 9am dive).

We did 1 instructor for 6 of us last month. Once you go out to do your dives, they will bring some more instructors. But the pool work can all be done by 1 person. Ask for Franz, he is fantastic. I really enjoyed getting certified last month. Never once did I full overwhelmed or unprepared for what came next.

You will get 1 instructor from the start, and he will stay with you the entire certification process (took me 2 afternoons).

We did 1 instructor for 6 of us last month. Once you go out to do your dives, they will bring some more instructors. But the pool work can all be done by 1 person. Ask for Franz, he is fantastic. I really enjoyed getting certified last month. Never once did I full overwhelmed or unprepared for what came next.

You will get 1 instructor from the start, and he will stay with you the entire certification process (took me 2 afternoons).

Franz is great! And good to know its now taking two days as opposed to longer like it used to.

My wife and I are already certified divers (AOW/Drysuit/Nitrox), but I had the opportunity to watch Franz and was impressed. I know this isn't a diving forum, but if you wade into those you will see a lot of negativity toward certain certifying agencies as being too soft and the resort instructors operating under those agenies to be at the softest end of an activity that takes place within an environment that will not support your life. But you will also read that, in the end, all of the agencies impart the same basic information at the open water certification level but the real key is in the instructor - a knowledgable, concerned PADI instructor will serve you much better than a passive, distant SSI instructor all day long. On top of that, the CSA shop actually makes aspiring divers pass a real swim test (when is the last time anyone saw that??). In sum, I think you will be well served by Franz - but I do second the recommendation that you perform your pool and book work before your vacation - unless you want to spend valuable vacation time studying a book and taking tests!! And, yes, I believe PADI permits a single instructor to dive OW with either 4 or 6 student divers.

Franz is great! And good to know its now taking two days as opposed to longer like it used to.

I am not sure, but I doubt the entire OW from start to finish is only 2 days - I think the 2 days refers to the OW dives (and this assumes you can take 2 dives a day - if you can't due to weather, scheduling, or other issues, it may take longer).

When I got certified (10 yrs ago?) I did all of my classroom and pool work at home, then did my checkout dives in Negril. I didn't want to spend my vacation studying the dive manual, and I didn't want to do my checkout dives in a quarry with 2 ft. visibility. When I got to the diveshop, I gave them my paperwork and joined the other divers. The divemaster did a pre-dive instruction for everyone, then a quick one for me. We would meet on bottom, give the ok, then as the others started their dive, I did a couple 'stupid human tricks' then we caught up with the other divers. It worked out perfect! Have fun!

My husband just did this when we were at CSA in December 2012. He had Franz and he was awesome. He went for the resort certification and ended up getting the PADI certification since he loved diving so much and is a great swimmer and very at home in the water. It took him 2 days to get fully PADI certified. He had to study and take some written tests and do a lot of pool work with Franz. He only went out on one dive per day - I think it was three dives for testing and certification. It cost around $200 - $250 for the PADI certification (I forget exactly) and you cannot use resort credit (we were told you could, but upon check out were told we could not).